Aberdare Tennis Club

Subtitle

NEWS

The latest club news will now be published and updated regularly on our Facebook page instead of this website. Please click below to open up our Facebook page.

See the 'Results' tab for the latest results in our Club Championship Knockout Competition and for the latest results and standings in our Junior Ladder Competition and True Rank Ladder league too.

With an injury to one of our entrants in the Club Championship, a space had become available in our Plate competiton. This place was up for grabs with our Junior members who took part in their own knockout competition where the winner took the place in the plate competition. After some tough matches the final between the top two junior players took place with Matthew Rees coming out on top over Elis Nash. Good luck Matthew in the hunt for the Plate!

Our first Club Championship is underway with 16 competitors taking part. For first round losers a 'Plate' competition will be run to have a second chance at winning some silverware while our main draw will result in crowning our first club champion and being presented with the Club Champion Trophy. The final of the Plate and Trophy will be played on Final's Day in September, date to be confirmed, good luck to all.

The Aegon Team Tennis competition has now finished and although Aberdare finished bottom of the table the experience we gained will be valuable for next year. We won a few individual matches against the other teams and in our first game the match was decided in the final championship tie break set, unfortunately for us in Cwmbran's favour. I think eveyone involved enjoyed themselves and we had a number of different people representing the club in the matches too which was good to see.

Mini coaching and all membership fees have remained the same as last year.

Mini coaching membership is £12 for new members, £10 for returning members with each session attended costing £1.50.

The start of the mini tennis coaching sessions for 2013 resumes on Wednesday, April 3rd from 6-7pm along with the Junior Club night from 6pm-8pm, depending on the lighting. No places can be reserved for the mini tennis coaching and will be given on a first come first serve basis, membership forms will be issued at the end of the first session on the 3rd April, prices are yet to be decided but hoped to remain the same as last year. Don't forget that returning members will have a reduction in the membership fees while new members will receive the club t-shirt as part of their membership fee. Prices will be updated on the main page when determined. See you all soon!!!!!

The dates for this years Aegon Team Tennis tournament has been released, it maybe that we don't have matches on every date shown below, it all depends on the number of teams entering, once the closing date for entries has been passed we will update the fixture list with exact dates/opposition.

14thApril28thApril19thMay2ndJune9thJune23rdJune

The photos of this years winners of the Junior Ladder Tournament being presented with their trophies has now been uploaded here and to our Facebook page. See Photo Gallery on this site.

The club has now created an online network with the Global Tennis Network to manage our ladder competitions online, players who sign up can now update the scores from their matches themselves rather than relying on club committee members. When the results are entered the ranking system is automatically adjusted real time and can be seen on the Results page on this site.

There will be two ladders running, the normal ladder for the seniors and juniors which involves a leapfrog system as currently run at the club but also a ladder for all ages groups called the True Rank Ladder. This True Rank Ladder runs like the tennis ATP tour in that anyone from the club can play anyone else registered on the ladder and you accrue points for winning and losing. Juniors can play the senior members and a true club ranking is generated to show where you stand in the club.

Get your challenges in, record your results and aboveallhavefun!

Congratulations to Elis Nash who won the Elfed Bowen Junior Ladder Competition for 2012. He started off on the last day in top position, but then lost to last years winner, Matthew Rees, then won the second match between the pair to become number one and winner of the tournament. 2011 winner, Matthew, remained in 2nd place while newcomer Sam Rossi finished in third place in his first season at the club after being number one at one point during the season. For the finishing positions in the ladder competition please look at the results page on this site. Trophies will be awarded shortly and photographs taken and published on this site and our Facebook site too.

If your strings look like this, don't despair, the club now offers a
restrining service to our members so speak to Alun or Chris for
stringing advice and prices.

We also have racquet over grips for sale at £1 a grip in white, black and blue and Head 4 ball tubes are selling for £3 each.

Other merchandise available at the club include tshirts, hoodies and towels.

Anyone wishing to buy any of the above then speak to Alun or Chris on court.

The Aegon County Tennis League started on 15th April against Cwmbran, the club's first ever entry into this competition and though overall the match winners were Cwmbran, Aberdare were very competitive. Congratulations to Club Captain Vito, who won his singles match and he also recorded a win with Chris Bowditch in the doubles pairing. Chris though losing his singles match had a close fought game against his opponent, while Alun found the astro turf surface difficult to come to terms with. Rhys was unfortunately up against an opponent with a 7.1 rating but did make him work for his win while the same 7.1 player teamed up Alun's opponent against Alun and John Harvey in the other doubles match. Cwmbran won the match 8-4 and the scores and the rest of the league results can be found here

The next match was home against Radyr on the 29th April but unfortunately the heavy downpours were such that the match had to be cancelled and will now be re-arranged for another day.

Aberdare Tennis Club will be entering a team into the Aegeon County Team competition for the first time, starting off in Division 2 East. This competition has 4 single and 2 doubles matches against the following teams:

15/04/12 - Cwmbran Tennis Club

29/04/12 - Radyr

13/05/12 - Allt-Yr-Yn

27/05/12 - David Lloyd Cardiff

10/06/12 - Rhiwbina 'B'

Home or away has not yet been decided but the Club Captain (or Clerk as he prefers) Vito, will be attending a meeting on 17th March with the other team captains. Updates here when available. Good luck to all that take part.

The Junior Coaching Sessions for 2012 will be starting back up on 28th March from 6-7pm. There will be limited spaces available and membership will be based on a first come basis, membership forms will be given out from the first session onwards. Prices remain the same as last year, reduced membership fee for returning members!

The club now has a stringing machine so should your strings break speak to Alun or Chris at the club who can re-string your racquet at great prices (price depends on type of string).

New stock has arrived of Head Instinct tennis balls at £3 per tube of four. If you would like to buy any please speak to Alun or Chris at the Club.

Congratulations to Sarah and Vito for winning the end of season 'do' doubles tournament held at Esporta, once again. The matches were so competitive that not all the fixtures were completed in the three hours play we had on court but Sarah and Vito managed to play all their matches, going undefeated and came out on top. There was some great tennis, fantastic rallies and a lot of fun was had by all, John Harvey and Chris were the runners up while Sam and John Williams finished in third place. The gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded after the lunch was eaten and since everyone enjoyed the competitive but fun matches they played discussions were made with regard to entering a team into the Summer and Winter league next seaso. So if you would like to join the team and represent Aberdare Tennis Club, please let us know as we need to know your availabilty to ensure we have enough interest to reform the team. Hope to see you all throughout the winter months, leading into the new season and back for our end of season 'do' once again, who knows, you may be on the winning team next year!

See our Results page for the results of the matches and table.

Sarah and Vito, the winning pair in action!

See our photo gallery page for more pics from our end of season tournament 2011.

Our end of season adult 'do' will be taking place Sunday 20th November at Esporta in Llandarcy, once again. This year the courts have been booked for 3 hours play and food afterwards in the bar. Due to a number of withdrawals, there will now be 7 teams in all competiting in the doubles tournamen which were picked out randomly as follows:

John H & Chris

Alun & Rhys

David & Gareth

Vito & Sarah

Malcolm & Rebecca

John W & Sam

Steve & Luke

Good luck all and enjoy the day.

Next year we hope to combine or run two separate end of season do's for the adults and our junior ladder tournament competitors.

Check out our Photo page for a couple of pics of our Junior Ladder Competition winner and the third placed competitor, unfortunately, the competition runner up hasnt yet picked up his trophy as the Saturday club session is the same time as his football team kicks off, hopefully we will see you soon Jordan!

Just to let you know that thanks to one of our Junior Members, the names have been pulled out of the hat for the Senior Winter Ladder Tournament. A number of games have already been played so please take a look at our results page for the latest standings and to see who you can play to progress to the top of the ladder! Please report any results that change the standings on the ladder to Chris. Good luck all and have some fun!!!

Congratulations to Mathew who finished as the winner of our Elfed Bowen Junior Ladder competition for 2011. In a competition where the leader changed a number of times, Mathew stayed at the top for the last few weeks playing some fine tennis to be the first winner of this trophy.

It was great to see so many junior members taking part in this competition, we hope you all enjoyed it and will be ready to take up the challenge once again when the season begins around April time.

Unfortunately, Elfed will not be able to present the trophy himself to Mathew this year but a presentation will be held in the next few weeks, depending on the weather of course! We hope to see you all there for the presentation to the winner, runnner up and third placed trophy and for some photos to be taken too.

The Junior Ladder Tournament is due to be completed on September 17th where our first winner of the Elfed Bowen Junior Ladder Tournament trophy will be crowned. Make sure that you get your challenges in now before that time to make your way to the top of the ladder!

Dont forget to visit our Facebook page 'Aberdare Tennis Club' and our Twitter page 'Aberdaretennis' for the latest updates regarding the junior coaching sessionsand whether they are going ahead due to any rain that we may be having. If you do have a Facebook page or Twitter account yourself, then please add us too!

The Elfed Bowen Junior Ladder Tournament 2011 has now begun so if you wish to take part in this friendly, yet competitive, tournament please speak to one of the committee members to add you to the ladder. At the end of the season the winner will be presented with the inaugural Elfed Bowen trophy by the man himself and will have their name engraved on the trophy and will also be presented with a further trophy which they can then keep. Good luck to all and more importantly...have fun!

The new season of the Junior Coaching Sessions is due to start on March 23rd, from 6pm to 7pm, at Aberdare Park Tennis Courts. Places once again will be limited so please get in touch to book your childs attendance, however, places will only be kept once the membership fee has been paid. For new members you are able to have a trial session for £1.50 prior to joining and the introductory membership fee of £12 includes insurance, club t-shirt and a membership card that enables free play on the tennis courts outside of club session times. For returning members the membership fee is £10 which includes insurance and membership card for free play but no t-shirt is provided for returning members, however, if you would like to purchase a new t-shirt then please contact one of the coaches for details.

Photos from the end of season function at Esporta have now been uploaded, apologies for some of the shots being out of focus, it was the camera's fault, honest. The day went fantastically well, yet again, with some grea, fun and competitive matches and the winners were decided at the very last game. Congratulations to John Harvey and Hugh for tremendous tennis and team work on their way to becoming champions, teams were put together by pulling names out of the hat and for the full results and the final table click this link HERE.

Congratulations to Rebecca for finishing the season at the top of the Junior Ladder competition and to Luke for the runners up position, both were presented with their trophies at the end of season function at Esporta (see the photos page). Hopefully next year will see the competition expand further with some of our junior coaching session members progressing to full members and taking part in this Ladder tournament.

The 2010 season has now come to an end so check our web site for details as to when the new season begins or contact us via email or telephone (see Contacts page for details).

The photos from the Official Opening at the Junior Club Night/Junior Coaching Sessions are now uploaded to our Photo Gallery so go take a look!

Also, heres a link to an article relating to the opening of the new courts: HERE

Congratulations Alun Bowditch, on winning the Runners Up award for the Club/School Link at the Community Sports Award run by A.I.M (Rhondda Cynon Taff County Bourough Council). As well as coaching at the Club, Alun has been teaching tennis at Blaengwawr Comprehensive School during the Summer term which has been well received by students and teachers alike, well done Alun!

Our Club Secretary has been nominated for an Award at the Community Sports Awards, fingers crossed for you Alun!

There are no more places left for our Junior Coaching Program but if you would like to place your childs name on the waiting list please get in touch.

The Club will officially start on Saturday 10th April at 10am to 1pm and will then run on Wednesdays for our Junior Members and Thursdays for our Senior/Team members, see the Home page for times etc.

The Junior Coaching Sessions have now finished at the Aberdare Sports Centre on Mondays and will now take place at the Aberdare Park Tennis Courts on Wednesdays at 6pm to 7pm. There are still a couple of places available but these will likely be filled in the coming weeks.

The tennis courts have now been completed, apart from our new colour scheme which is due to be painted in the forthcoming weeks, and the results are fantastic. Even during the heavy rain we've had lately, the courts show no signs of puddles gathering which is a vast improvement on the old courts and proves the drainage system works well.

Prices for the new Junior coaching session, starting 22nd February at Aberdare Sports Cente, is £1 per session but a membership fee of £10 will need to be paid for the year after the first 'taster' session. This £10 membership includes insurance, club t-shirt and lets you play for free outside the club sessions at Aberdare Park tennis courts. There are a limited number of places available so make sure you reserve your childs place as soon as possible. You can e-mail us or phone us to reserve a place (see Contact Us page for details.)

We've also got a Facebook page set up called the 'Official Aberdare Tennis Club' so use this wording to find us in the search for friends.

16/01/10 - Good news! The Club has now booked the Aberdare Sports Centre Hall for Monday, 22nd February to start off our Junior Club Night. This session, from 6pm to 7pm, will allow us to develop new players aged 6 and up who may have never played before but would like to learn to play tennis. All equipment will be provided by the Club and once the Club season officially starts the sessions will then take place at the Club Courts in Aberdare Park on the Junior Club night every Wednesday.

There are limited places available so if you wish to find out more information please contact the Club Secretary (see Contact Us page). At the time of writing, fees for this Junior Session have not yet been agreed but as soon as they become available the web site will be updated with the details.

This Junior night will be a sparate membership than the normal Club membership as it involves coaching the junior members and it is hoped that in time when ability improves that the Junior members will progress into the Club System, taking part, if they wish, in the internal competitions that we hold.

17/12/09 - A Message From The Secretary:

During October, I contacted Martin Sullivan (who works for the R.C.T. Council) with regard to the condition of the tennis courts. As all our members know, the surfaces on the three courts are now far from ideal, and the bottom court is in fact beginning to break up, giving players some really strange bounces to cope with. Also, we have had a few falls on the bottom court this last season due to the loose gravel.

Not long after, Martin contacted me to arrange a meeting in November with himself and Julian Walker to discuss some interesting developments. During this meeting he informed me that a sporting grant is now available for the Heads Of The Valleys, which is aimed at improving sporting venues such as ours. He has applied for funding from this grant in order to completely refurbish the courts. The cost of doing this is approximately £33,000, and as the council is prepared to donate £7,000 of their own money towards this, Martin is hopeful that the governing body will look favourably on our application.

This is tremendous news for us if it comes through and will enable the following to take place:

The existing courts will be completely dug up, and a porous mixture of earth and chippings will be laid down. Then a special waterproof playing surface will be put on top. This surface will contain small holes every 10cm or so, which allows water to soak through to the porous mixture, thus we should have less disruption to our playing time during rain interruptions.

He has also informed me that the courts are designed to minimise the amount of water getting onto the playing surface. To do this, the court surface will slope slightly after the playing area, so that the water runs off to the edges where a draining system will run along the edge of the fencing surrounding the courts.

The grant will also cover the cost of replacing the existing fencing with a new fence made up of reinforced chain, which will hopefully prevent people getting in unofficially, and to complete things, we will also be getting three new nets and posts.

We should know in Januray if Martin's application is successful, and if it is, work should begin by August, but do not worry as we hope to have permission to play at the Hirwaun tennis courts whilst our courts are out of action. We will owe Martin and Julian a big thank you if all this comes through, as we will then have a playing surface which will be the envy of many clubs.

Wishing you all the best and have a Merry Christmas

Alun

Just to let you know that the season is coming to a close, especially now that the park is being locked up earlier each Wednesday, so by the end of October at the latest the club sessions on Wednesday will stop. The club normally resumes around March/April time so either contact us (details on the 'Contact Us' page) or check this web site for news regarding the new season.

On the 4th October, the end of season 'Do' was held at the Glamorgan Racquet Club (Esporta) in Llandarcy, Swansea with great success. A mini doubles tournament was held with a meal afterwards and all who took part thoroughly enjoyed themselves, so much so that it is hoped that next years 'Do' will be held at the same venue.

John Harvey literally drew the names out of a hat (and what a great gangsters hat it was, thanks Liam) and paired up the twelve players who attended. The tournament was played in a great spirit with some quality tennis being played and all the games were competitive but fun. The tournament was eventually won on points difference by the pairing placed together due to the fact of a car breakdown on the way to the bus pick up point that meant them missing the bus and arriving late.

The venue was fantastic, the food great and the hospitality of all at Esporta made this an afternoon to remember, cementing the idea of making this a regualr end of year event.

To work out the scores, find the name in the first column that you want to trace and then look from left to right against their opponents named in the top row.

Alun/David

Liam/Malcolm

Ryan/Lesley

Chris/Sarah

Hugh/Joe

Chugga/John

Alun/David

4:1

4:0

3:4

4:3

4:0

Liam/Malcolm

1:4

4:1

2:4

3:4

4:1

Ryan/Lesley

0:4

3:4

4:3

0:4

3:4

Chris/Sarah

4:3

4:2

3:4

4:1

4:2

Hugh/Joe

3:4

4:3

4:0

1:4

4:0

Chugga/John

0:4

4:1

4:3

2:4

4:0

The final standings:

Team

Won

Lost

For

Against

Points

Difference

Alun/David

4

1

19

8

4

11

Chris/Sarah

4

1

19

12

4

7

Hugh/Joe

3

2

16

11

3

5

Chugga/John

3

2

14

12

3

2

Liam/Malcolm

2

3

14

14

2

0

Ryan/Lesley

1

4

10

19

1

-9

Talks are still being held with Rhondda Cynon Taff A.I.M in view of setting up a juniour and under 10's night with some funding already in place to go along with the equipment, hopefully this will be up and running before the end of this year.

A new link to the Aberdare Boys Grammar School has been included in the 'About Us' and 'Links' page as they have some history relating to the club grounds etc that's worth a read with pictures from our clubs very own Elfed Bowen.